Times like these
by LashiaTwain
Summary: When you've had a tough day on the job, sometimes you just want to sit back, relax, and not think, nor talk to someone for a while. When you're married with a kid that can sometimes be hard to achieve. Luckily, his family is understanding.


Disclaimer: I don't own Detective Conan/Case closed. If I did, it'd be a lot more gay and there'd be a lot less deaths.  
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The last of the cigarette elated his body with the last bit of courage he needed to put the car in park, and exit it, staring at his quaint little villa home, which fit in with everything else. Perfect and impeccable. Spotless on the outside, and on the inside. Just like every other house on the street.

It was a garish sight.

Throwing the cigarette butt as he pleased, he instantly felt regret creeping up his back as he heard the shrill voice of the neighbor reprimanding him, saying he shouldn't litter. _The kids will follow your example,_ he explained. The kids. Oh yes, there were many, so fucking many kids around. Each morning was a tag-line to the bus, soccer moms yelling after them to behave in school, the ignorant dads driving to work in their eco-friendly baby blue Priuses which gave them the same image as a eunuch had in his mind. Fucking plebeians the lot of them. Ignoring the neighbor about his butt, he went to his front door, grumblingly opening it up, his silver eyes zeroing in on the hideous key-chain dangling off it, staring at it with such anger he hoped he could make it combust into flames with the thought alone.

No such luck. Typical.

Jamming the key into the lock, he, to his annoyance, found the door unlocked. Which meant of course, the other inhabitants were also home. Great. He was gonna get reprimanded again. This time by his partner. Bombarded with questions. Bombarded with screaming. Maybe his partner hadn't heard him enter the home. Maybe he could still make it out and leave…

"Oh, you're back already. Good, I need you to do the laundry while I go grocery shopping, we're all out of toilet paper and band-aids, plus we need more fruit snacks for our son." As quick as his partner appeared, just as quickly did he disappear before he could even get in a word. With a distorted groan he began undressing the upper levels of clothing, dismissively letting his shoes land however they wished as he dragged them off his feet, and following his partner in sickness and health to the kitchen, the agitated aura surrounding him plainly visible to even a blind man.

"What's the matter? Bad day on the job?" As if he even needed to ask. Moving past him, he grabbed one of the tumblers from the cupboard and went to the living room where the liquor cabinet was neatly placed. He noticed with a find look for about a tenth of a second that the living room was neatly cleaned. Well, that's nice to return to, at least. Opening a bottle of cheap rye, he filled the bottom of his tumbler and moved to set the bottle back, wherein that short timespan two ice cubes were softly placed in his drink. The way he liked it. Well, maybe he shouldn't be so angry. It was just a botched attempt of something, that doesn't even affect him… His groans were less audible than when he returned home now, but still quite discernible.

"I can do the laundry if you'd rather go get the essentials. Won't get your hair all mussed up with suds then." The amusement was practically dripping from his tone, like the nectar of the flowers into the insidious deep that swallowed it up, with no reciprocation. He didn't want to do laundry, that was for sure. Going shopping for triple-ply wasn't high on his list either. It seemed evident on his face, apparently.

"Alright, I get it. Go pick up the kids from school, then I'll go shopping in the meanwhile, and I'll do laundry after dinner. But then you do the dishes, and you read them the bedtime story tonight." Well… he couldn't complain about that arrangement. With a brief nod, his husband moved down for a kiss, which he briefly met him on, before enjoying his drink. He could hear Shuichi leave in his car. The anger and malicious intent he felt when entering the home seemed to vaporize with every sip, staring at the ice cubes. Bullet-shaped. He had no need to stifle his smile, but he still diminished it to the point where it was barely visible. Couldn't afford being caught getting sentimental on his own time. When the tumbler was empty, he decided he might as well get going, as the time was nigh.

When Shuichi had told him to pick up the 'kids', as in plural, he assumed it was just a mistake. He was foreign, after all. Seeing the 5 kids argue and bicker as he was expected to walk them home, was not what he had in mind. He felt his annoyance stir up again, but at least the loudest of the kids was the first one to be dropped off. A big kid, named something Kojima. That's what the small girl called him at least. Next up was freckled kid, a quieter sort. Still annoying, but to a lesser extent.

He thanked him for walking him home, and said his goodbyes to his friends. Great, now it was just the two little girls and then he was homebound.

He wasn't usually the one to pick up the kids after school, thus also why he hadn't expected to walk all of them home, since apparently Shuichi had volunteered to do so as they were conveniently the last stop on the road that led them all back to their place, and while that was a whole other case of annoyance on him now, he had noticed that the one girl seemed to grow flustered when it was just the three of them left. Last time, he didn't know why. Kid affairs didn't interest him in the least. But when they were at her apartment complex, he couldn't help but catch some of the things the girl spoke off to the other. Seemingly, his son was in the favor of that young girl. Normally he didn't care about childish stuff like that. But knowing his son had options, stemmed a seed of pride within him. It, ostensibly showed as the last of the gang of brats stared up at him with an almost disgusted look. Now this kid, he knew. He'd worked with her parents, when they were still alive.

She was just like her dad. Annoying and clever. He shrugged off the look she shot him, but his mind festered on the emotion he felt. It wasn't wrong to feel proud about your son in that way. He… was pretty sure.

They dropped the girl off at her grandfathers' place, who lived not too far from their own little suburban home in a cul-de-sac. When it was just the two of them, Conan seemed to shrug off the embarrassment of asking to hold his dads hand in public. When it was just the two of them, Gin dismissed that same embarrassment.

Arriving home at nearly the same time as it took for Shuichi to return with the carload of toilet paper, he was glad he'd elected to do neither of the options he was initially introduced to upon returning home. That would have put him in a sour mood for the rest of the day. Conan ran along inside, quickly followed by Shuichi as Gin was left with unloading the car. Not too bad a task, better than having to go pick up the stuff. As he was carrying their amenities inside, he found himself short on space, and in a rush of anger yelled at the top of his lungs; "Nobody in this world needs this much toilet paper! Unless you're shitting gold, I won't stand for this hoarding bullshit!" To which Shuichi calmly responded to while covering Conan's ears. "While you say that, you'd be thrice as annoyed if I only bought one pack at a time, and we'd have to go buy more every week. There's room in the cupboard above the cleaning utensils."

Of course, there was. There was always room when Shuichi said so. Not when he was actively looking for even the tiniest bit of room for a pillow to squeeze through, no, no, of course not. But when Shuichi wanted room for 48 packs of toilet paper, he'd find room.

There was no fucking room in the cupboard above the cleaning utensils.

"I'm going to strangle a puppy if you can't find the room for these rolls. I can't find the space you seem to think there's so much off." His anger was seeping out like venom with every word, at any moment, he could poison the ground they stood on, and wilt away the flowers before him. And just like Shuichi had said, he calmly moved the things around, until there was room. Like he lived inside Mary Poppins purse, or something.

"Right. Well. That just means I won't actively go looking for one." He meant to sound menacing. But when Shuichi smiled at him, it didn't really feel like it was successful. And when Shuichi smiled at him, that didn't matter.

When everything had fallen into place, Conan conveniently remembered that his homework was due, and just like they'd agreed earlier, Gin would be the one to help him. As they were sitting on the living room floor, he glared at the tasks they were given. 'Draw a picture of your family. Tell us a story about them!' like his private life wasn't becoming more and more unconcealed, now it had come to the point where his son would be the one to unveil the last bit of secrecy about him, and to other middle schoolers on top of that. As he was helping Conan with the kana for the story, he slowly realized how little he knew about Conan's homework. About his friends. About—him. As he watched his son for a brief moment, he placed a hand on Conan's head, which drew the attention of the bright boy to his father's almost-always cold uncaring face. Gin wasn't a great dad, he knew that. He wasn't even a good one. Or a good man. Yet he had all these things—that others envied. Or would, if he let them know about it. He smiled down at Conans young face. Realizing it wasn't going to be young forever. His son would grow.

And so, should he. Leaving Conan to battle the homework on his own, which he was quite capable off should anyone be questioning that, and walked to the kitchen where his partner—his husband stood, diligently cooking. In a spotless kitchen. In their spotless house. With a few more steps, his one arm wrapped around Shuichis waist, calmly standing with him for a little while, before he unnervingly placed his head on Shuichis strong shoulder. "I feel like I don't appreciate what you do enough." It was hard to say, but it was true.

Shuichi's emerald eyes locked onto Gin's relaxed face. It was never easy, doing everything in the household, and maintaining a job. It was never easy, letting your partner know that they could help out more. But the quiet resonance of his husband now, trusting Shuichi to hold him, even when he knows he doesn't deserve it, reminds Shuichi of why he agreed to marry this stupid idiot in the first place. "If I wanted appraisal, I would've stuck with literally anyone else I've ever been with. I stuck with you because you are what you are, unapologetically. And while you can be the most useless boot in a bunch of shoes… You'll always be my favorite boot." Shuichi smiled, cooking the yakisoba with Gin softly slouching on him.

"That's the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard anyone say. I should've killed you before I fell for you." The silver haired man grumbled, but made no indication he was going to move anytime soon. He had two silver bullets in his holster, and that's all he needed to make it through the day. To make it through the week, month, year.

Two silver bullets. In times like these, that's not so bad a catch.


End file.
